OU’s Russ College record-setting gift from namesake’s estate grows to $100 million
June 26, 2008
The largest gift any public engineering college has ever received — and the largest to any public university in Ohio — just got larger, according to an Ohio University news release.
In January, OU President Roderick McDavis announced an estimated $80 million gift from the estate of the late Fritz and Dolores Russ of Dayton. The value of the estate is now known to be in excess of $91.8 million — $79.1 million in cash and securities in addition to $12.7 million in property. The proceeds will support engineering education and research at OU.
This gift brings the Russes’ total giving to at least $100.7 million. Prior to this gift, the couple had contributed more than $8.9 million to OU, the majority of which is held in endowments that support engineering.
The Russes’ generosity has made them the largest donors in the university’s history, the release said. Another engineering family — C. Paul and Beth K. Stocker — are next on the list with contributions totaling $31.9 million.
The Ohio University Board of Trustees named the Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ College of Engineering and Technology in honor of the Russes’ commitment to engineering education on June 25, 1994.
“The Russes have placed their remarkable legacy in Ohio University’s hands,” McDavis said in the prepared release. “They have entrusted us to carry forward their commitment to innovation, to engineering and to the betterment of mankind through our stewardship of this incredible gift. We are humbled by the magnitude of their generosity.”
The Russes believed in putting support where it would have significant impact, according to the release. In addition to supporting Russ College students, faculty and facilities, they established the Russ Prize to recognize how engineering improves the human condition. One of the top three engineering prizes in the world, the Russ Prize is awarded bi-annually in conjunction with the National Academy of Engineering.
In order to ensure the gift takes the college to “a new level of excellence,” the release said, Russ College Dean Dennis Irwin is assembling an external advisory group that will suggest strategies for allocating the resources. Still being finalized, the group has a primary charge of honoring the Russes’ commitment to innovation and to engineering education.
The advisory group — experts from industry, government and engineering education — will convene this summer. The outcome of its work , the release said, will be an academic plan designed to place the Russ College among the nation’s top colleges of engineering within 10 years. The planning will take cues from the college’s strategic research areas: avionics; biomedical engineering, energy and the environment; and smart civil infrastructure.
Planners expect that, in addition to supporting research, funds from the estate will support scholarships and leadership incentives for engineering students.
Fritz Russ earned his bachelor’s in electrical engineering from OU in 1942. Early in his career at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., he helped build the world’s first high-voltage, RF-generated power supply, later used in every television set.
The Russes founded Systems Research Laboratories (SRL) in 1950. SRL eventually expanded to a multi-building research campus — now known as the Russ Research Center — in Beavercreek, Ohio, and grew into one of the world’s largest independent engineering and technology research firms.
This Russ Research Center, a 28-acre research campus that offers a high-tech atmosphere and currently houses 13 companies, remained part of the Russes’ real-estate holdings and is included in the gift to OU. It will be retained as a strategic partner in research and technology for the Russ College.
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